Toyota Announces Selection of Recipients of the 2017 Toyota Environmental Activities Grant Program

Toyota City, Japan, Nov, 15 2017 - (JCN Newswire) - Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) has selected 28 projects as grant recipients of the Toyota Environmental Activities Grant Program. In the 18 years since its introduction in 2000, a cumulative total of 360 projects in 53 countries and regions have received this grant.

The program was introduced to commemorate Toyota winning the Global 500 Award1 in 1999. It is also part of Challenge 6: the Challenge of Establishing a Future Society in Harmony with Nature under the Toyota Environmental Challenge 20502, which was announced in 2015.

Biodiversity conservation and climate change were chosen as themes for the grant program, which drew 104 applications in the three selection categories--international project grants, domestic project grants, and domestic small project grants.

During the screening process, the first and final rounds focused on continuity and future development, harmony with regional characteristics, among other points. Within the international project grant category, 10 projects were selected, including the "Save the forests in Madagascar and make children smile!" project. In Japan, ten projects were selected from the domestic project category, including the "Coral reef habitat restoration project around the Kerama Islands (Okinawa)," and eight projects, including the "Ex situ conservation project for the critically endangered pink sea milkwort of Noto Peninsula" were selected from the domestic small project grant category.

A ceremony will be held in December in Tokyo, where representatives of this year's selected projects will be presented with grant certificates. A meeting is scheduled to be held next spring to report on the selections.

Toyota intends to continue its efforts toward establishing a future society in harmony with nature through various forms of support to NPOs and other organizations in the future.

(1) The award recognizes the outstanding achievements of individuals and organizations in protecting and improving the environment. In 1999, Toyota became the first Japanese corporation to receive the award in recognition of its many initiatives to protect and improve the environment (such as being the first company in the world to mass-produce and sell hybrid vehicles) and its wide-ranging corporate social contribution activities.(2) With the aim of contributing to the sustainability of the global environment, in October 2015 Toyota announced the Toyota Environmental Challenge 2050. The Toyota Environmental Challenge 2050 aims to reduce the environmental burden of manufacturing and driving vehicles to zero, by helping address key global environmental issues such as climate change, water shortage, resource depletion, and degradation of biodiversity, as well as to create value and produce benefits for society. The challenge is composed of six individual challenges across three areas: ever-better cars, ever-better manufacturing, and enriching the lives of communities. http://www.toyota-global.com/sustainability/environment/challenge2050/

About Toyota

Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) is the global mobility company that introduced the Prius hybrid-electric car in 1997 and the first mass-produced fuel cell sedan, Mirai, in 2014. Headquartered in Toyota City, Japan, Toyota has been making cars since 1937. Today, Toyota proudly employs 370,000 employees in communities around the world. Together, they build around 10 million vehicles per year in 29 countries, from mainstream cars and premium vehicles to mini-vehicles and commercial trucks, and sell them in more than 170 countries under the brands Toyota, Lexus, Daihatsu and Hino. For more information, please visit www.toyota-global.com.